North West has enough shale gas to power Britain for 43 years

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Towns and villages rich with shale gas reserves will be offered the chance to
cash in after the industry promised to pay as much as £1.1 billion in
compensation for fracking.

Local groups would have free rein to decide how to spend half the money, which
could amount to £10 million per site and perhaps be put towards cutting
households’ energy bills. The rest would go into a fund to improve
infrastructure, such as potholed roads.

The offer came as the Government released new official estimates showing that
northern England is sitting on enough shale gas to fuel Britain for